2024 in publishing: Headwinds galore, from Forbesgate to blocklists to AI
2024 in Review
The publishing industry faced a number of headwinds in 2024.
Several historically significant newspapers changed hands, digital traffic was harmed by changes made to search and keyword blocklists undermined the commercialisation of journalistic efforts — to name just a few.
As GroupM noted in its latest This Year Next Year report, print accounted for more than half of total ad revenue in 2000. Twenty-five years later, that figure is expected to be just 4.3%.
Still, there is hope for publishers. The new Labour-led UK government has repeatedly stated a commitment to supporting a free and open press, with prime minister Sir Keir Starmer calling journalism “the lifeblood of democracy” in October.
Here are five key trends and major stories from the past year in the world of publishing.
Ownership changes and influence
A number of iconic UK newspapers were sold.
Most recently, furore over a proposed sale of The Observer to Tortoise Media — first announced in September — led to strike action in early December by Guardian Media Group (GMG) journalists.
GMG has now agreed in principle to the deal. Under the agreement, the Scott Trust will invest in Tortoise and retain seats on its boards, while Tortoise is committing to invest £25m into The Observer.
Scott Trust and Guardian Media Group approve Observer sale to Tortoise
Earlier in the year, the long-winded sale process of Telegraph Media Group properties The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator saw progress. The latter was purchased by GB News and UnHerd owner Sir Paul Marshall for £100m in September. The following month, New York Sun owner Dovid Efune emerged as the likely buyer of the Telegraph, although he has yet to close the deal amid fundraising concerns.
This month, it was also reported that one the UK’s largest regional publishers, National World, is edging towards a £61.5m takeover by Media Concierge.
Although the Evening Standard did not change ownership, it did change its name. The daily regional paper announced in May that it would be moving to a weekly edition, laying off 150 staff members in the process.
In September, the title relaunched as the London Standard, but its early days have been tempestuous. Editor-in-chief Dylan Jones announced in November that he would be departing after just 18 months at the helm.
In the US, both The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong controversially intervened to deny the papers the opportunity to endorse vice-president Kamala Harris for president.
And the fallout was swift: the Post, already embattled by controversy stemming from CEO Will Lewis’ time at News Corp, shed more than 10% of its subscribers.
The debacle led The Media Leader columnist Raymond Snoddy to declare in October that “integrity in the media no longer matters and personal interests rise above all else”.
The great newspapers of the world just lost a couple of members
AI shakes up traffic, data licensing and best practice
Perhaps the biggest adjustment publishers have had to make this year is responding to the ongoing development of generative AI and how it is likely to impact the future of the web.
AI developers are jockeying for control of what tech executives appear to believe will be the next generation of search: asking AI questions, rather than a search bar.
Google launched its AI Overviews feature, which provides generated responses to certain queries. The result, according to some who spoke to The Media Leader, is substantially reduced traffic potential from search. That is on top of already-reduced traffic potential from social media websites like Facebook and X following changes made to those platforms.
Publishers say Google’s AI Overviews have reduced traffic potential
In response, audience development teams are looking for new ways to improve outreach, such as via WhatsApp and Reddit. But the lesson remains: if you rely on a third-party platform for traffic, your audience could be randomly reduced overnight by opaque algorithmic adjustments.
Still, there is opportunity aplenty to be had from AI, at least according to publishing leaders like Independent CEO Christian Broughton. In an interview with The Media Leader, Broughton argued that media leaders “are more aware of dangers than they are of opportunities” here.
Numerous publishers, including The Independent, have inked partnerships with AI developers to license their intellectual property for use in training AI models and surfacing information when users make search queries with chatbots. This has opened up a new revenue stream for publishers, though terms of many deals have been kept secret.
Publishers are also actively putting AI tech to the test on editorial outputs, such as by aiding in article research and ideation.
A keyword blocklist reckoning
While generative AI continued to make waves this year, AI more generally has been used for years in the media industry, often to the detriment of publishers.
At the start of the year, World Media Group CEO Jamie Credland warned in an interview with The Media Leader that “the biggest challenge [facing publishers] is advertisers or marketers who are shying away from election or war coverage, who are perhaps using keyword blocklists in an indiscriminate way and may not even be aware of it”.
Indeed, keyword-blocklisting was identified as severely limiting the commercialisation of articles that were not only brand-safe, but also high-traffic opportunities for advertisers. According to brand-safety and contextual ad solutions provider Mantis, nearly half of Reach’s Euros coverage and two-fifths of publisher Halloween content were wrongly blocked from advertising due to irresponsible blocklisting practices.
How keyword-blocking still harms publishers — with Mantis’ Terry Hornsby
September research from challenger holding group Stagwell further undermined keyword-blocklisting as a brand-safety tactic. It found that advertising adjacent to content produced by quality news brands is safe, regardless of topic. Specifically, even stories about war, crime or politics are highly suitable for advertising.
A similar conclusion was reached by Teads and Lumen in October.
Forbesgate
Publishers also had their own scandal to deal with.
In April, Forbes‘ seven-year domain-spoofing ad scheme was uncovered.
Since 2017, the title had been placing many ads on www3.forbes.com (a website hidden from Google search and only accessible through clicks from other sites via Outbrain and Taboola) rather than www.forbes.com, where its readers generally are found.
Advertisers duped into buying on the relatively worthless inventory included major brands and all six major ad agency holding companies.
The revelation brought to the fore both the issue of made-for-advertising sites and how they were harming the broader publishing industry by funnelling adspend from quality websites. It also raised questions around how advertisers and agencies allowed it to happen for years without checking whether those ads had been seen by anyone
As columnist Nick Manning wrote: “Nothing is interrupting the lucrative money-chain that siphons advertising budgets with little or no responsibility for exposure let alone effectiveness.”
Young people do read news
As news consumption has moved online, one perception of consumer behaviour that has become dominant is that young people don’t read the news (but rather consume it primarily via social media).
But that isn’t necessarily true.
In November, a new study from Newsworks, the marketing body for national news publishers, found that youth engagement with news brands is significantly under-reported.
However, the perception gap is so strong that few young adults are accurately recalling their news consumption when asked in surveys.
Heather Dansie, Newsworks’ insight director and co-author of the study, explained that the research also uncovered a “very equal” interest in hard and soft news content. The research hopes to provide a boon to an industry misperceived as old-fashioned.
As Dansie concluded: “Young people are engaged with the news.”
Young people don’t read news? Research from Newsworks suggests otherwise